The skeptics may be convincing, but “Climate change is upon us,” so the skepticism is fading anyway, according to scholars from the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Inside a skeptic’s mind: the ‘mental fitness’ of climate change denial
Published: September 13, 2022 3.32pm AEST
The number of climate skeptics is weakening. But they remain a noisy and sometimes powerful minority that continues to wield political influence. This group is unmoved by the near-universal consensus among scientists about the status and impacts of climate change.
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Our newest research of Australian skeptics focuses on potentially more malleable elements – including the thought processes of climate science deniers. Our findings suggest that some people reject consensus science and create alternative explanations due to distrust of climate science and irrational belief in “alternative science.”
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So how do we begin to change our minds?
Overall, our results suggest that climate change skepticism can be influenced by:
- fancy explanations of pseudoscience and/or the belief that events happen by chance
- believe that the problem is too large, complex, and expensive for individuals to solve alone.
Unlike sociological traits, these thought processes may be more open to targeted public messaging.
Finally, reality bites. Years of drought and unprecedented successive floods will struggle to fit a cynical narrative about another “one in 100 year event”. Even the attitudes of Australian farmers, including some of the most obstinate skeptics, Changing.
Climate change is upon us, and skepticism is fast becoming the subject of historiansnot a futurist.
Summary of the study;
Associations between position of control, information processing style and antireflection with climate change skepticism in an Australian sample
Breanna C. Fraser https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6660-2934,
Rachael Sharman https://orcid.org/0000-002-3630-1046 [email protected],
and Patrick D. Nunn https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9295-5741abstract
A part of the Australian public remains skeptical about the reality of climate change, its causes, impacts and the need for mitigation actions. To date, research on skepticism has mainly focused on factors that are highly resistant to change, particularly sociodemographic and value factors. This mixed methods study investigated whether psychological factors are more malleable: position of control; information processing style; and against reflection, skepticism about projected climate change above and beyond sociodemographic and value factors. A sample of 390 participants (So poor age = 41.31, standard deviation = 18.72; 230 men) completed an electronic survey. Using hierarchical regression, belief in antireflection forces and external trajectories of control predicted the effects of skepticism. Confidence in attenuated reflex forces also predicts distribution and impacts skepticism. Finally, the outer controlling orbital predicts the skeptical response. The main qualitative themes identified were, trust in alternative science; distrust of climate science; belief in natural cycles; predictions do not come true; and the ulterior motives of interested parties.
Read more: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/09636625221116502
Anti-reflection defined by one of the reference study as “… a collective force defending the industrial capitalist system against claims that the system causes serious problems…” – in other words, those who believe that capitalism is working.
Alternative science is less well defined, but the authors seem to use alternative science, distrust of climate science, and pseudoscience interchangeably in their Conversation paper, so I think we have the idea.
Recently, climate concerns in Australia have grown – but there is no evidence that this is anything other than one of our regular cyclical swings. Australia seems to have a similar pattern to other Western nations – rising climate concerns, leftist government elections, economically damaging green policies like carbon pricing, recession and finally a return to the starting point, when economic hardship brought voters back into focus. ‘pay attention to practical problems.
Honestly in my opinion writing this conversation is a very poor attempt. I was expecting to see some revelations, an attempt to say something new. Instead, the authors of this novel seem to be repeating the same tired anti-capitalist stereotypes we see time and time again from Australian academia, combined with a lack of tolerance. tolerance for deviations from the author’s favorite narratives, all thinly decorated with a few jargon jargon.
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